Gifting Through Origin

How to Buy an EA Origin Game for a Friend

Perhaps one of the most requested features for EA Origin is to have the ability to gift a game to a friend. While once impossible, gifting to friends is now possible through Origin.

Gifting Games

Head to a game's page on Origin to buy it as a gift. You'll find that the buy menu has a down-arrow you can click to bring up a sub-menu. There you select, "Purchase as a gift", select a friend, and proceed to the checkout process.

Gifting games is a process requiring:

• You must be friends - Add their account to your friends list in Origin.
• Reside in the same country - Players can't yet gift internationally, for whatever reason. See alternatives below.
• Age Matters - EA have set up Origin such that if a player is under 18, they cannot receive titles rated Mature or Teen. If a friend is 17 and their parents will allow them to play X game, you can try to find a workaround.
• Giving DLC - To gift DLC, the other player has to own the base game, so you couldn't give a Sims 4 expansion to a player who doesn't already own The Sims 4.
• Blocked - Some players may set Origin to not allow gifting, they can change this setting if they have it on for whatever reason.

Contact EA if you sent the gift to the wrong person. Players who receive gifts must open them before the game will appear in their library. If you do this and it's still not there, sign out, close origin, and sign back into the program.

Other Ways

There are two normal ways it can be done, but both are rather imperfect. You can't just give a game like you can through Valve's Steam service.

Option 1: Buy the Digital Code
Many games come with a digital purchase option (and that's what you're hoping to accomplish with Origin anyway. Gifting directly would be nice, but instead you can purchase the game for a friend via Amazon. Either purchase the code yourself and copy/paste the code in an email directly to them.

You may also be able to send it as a gift if the game offers that option, but many do not.

Option 2: A second option is to deliver money through Paypal. It's not perfect, and there may be some funding lost but it might not be as bad as the option below. EA does accept paypal as a payment source. If one of you don't have one, seek the first or third option.

Option 3: Buy an Origin Gift Card
This option is listed last because it costs more unless there's a sale specific to origin. Why? You have to be sure your friend can cover the cost of the game and with tax that is sometimes an issue. Also, the gift cards I've seen come in only $20 increments. If the friend is in another country I'd do some homework on this option just in case, but I believe it works perfectly fine for most people.

You can do this second option at a local store. You're again delivering them the code they will add to their wallet, then it's up to them to buy it.

That's It for Now
EA not offering gifting is a big gripe for many people. Hopefully one day they put in the functionality. For now, if you're the friend who can afford a game or want to just give a gift, these are your main options for getting the game or money to them to use via origin.